Dr. Manik Inder Singh Sethi discusses some of the challenges facing mental health services in India, as well as some potential solutions. I am a resident in the Department of Psychiatry that caters to one of the largest private universities in South India. India today boasts a population of 1.36 billion people, the second-highest in […]
Latest articles
Fighting Predatory Journals in Africa: The Tale of a Young Moroccan Scientist
Khalid El Bairi discusses the problem of predatory journals, providing his personal experiences in challenging this issue in Africa. The open science movement has radically transformed access to research worldwide. Notably, the number of for-profit open access journals has increased dramatically during the last few years. In parallel, predatory open access issue arose as a recent trend […]
The patient voice: a biased or valuable source of information?
Casper G. Schoemaker reflects upon a recent interaction which caused him to consider how we should think about the value of patient accounts of illness. The education department of our academic hospital is proud to be ‘patient-centered’. Consequently, a patient was invited as the first keynote speaker at a retreat for teachers and some students. […]
Postgraduate Examinations
Dr Phillip Welsby shares some MRCP tales… My guilty secret? It took me three attempts to pass MRCP. I qualified from the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine for Women (that’s another story that has nothing to do with my sexual orientation in case you were, as you were, wondering). In the olden days in […]
Invitations to write masterworks
Dr Philip Welsby discusses some recent invitations to contribute to a range of lesser-known journals… I read a paper dealing with predatory or low-quality journals1 with interest. Having written about 100 papers on a wide variety of topics I have obviously been included in multiple commercially distributed lists. Between 6th October 2019 and 23rd April […]
The Transfer
Dr Bharadwaj Chada reflects on the critical importance of keeping family members well informed with regard to their relative’s progress. In her early nineties, gregarious, and only a tad matronly, Aida fast became a force to be reckoned with, as she took up residence in the farthest side room adjoining the MDT room. She’d been […]
Restrictions imposed on candidates from Sudan sitting for the Royal Colleges online examinations: the impact of political infringements
Dr Ahmed Hashim highlights the dilemma of the restrictions imposed on candidates from Sudan sitting for Royal College exams… Virtually no aspect of clinical practice has been spared from striking disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to the necessity of reorganising how clinical services are delivered, the pandemic has introduced many complexities in […]
Clinical research in the pandemic: views from two academics
Dr Susil Pallikadavath and Dr Anvesha Singh discuss the impact of Covid-19 on clinical research – both negative and positive… Introduction The Covid-19 pandemic has changed clinical research. Here, we explore how clinical academics have had to adapt to the challenges posed by the pandemic. We offer two views, one, from a newly graduated junior […]
Enlightenment of COVID-19 for medical students as a major public health event
Xianqiang Yu reflects on the role of medical students in the COVID-19 pandemic… We read with great interest an article in your journal about the roles of medical students during COVID-19 [1]. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread and worsen, it raises questions surrounding medical students. From the articles published in your journal, I […]
Night Float and the Struggle for Wellness in Medical Education
Dr James Agapoff and Dr Anandam Hilde discuss a quality improvement project to tackle the problem of sleep deprivation in trainees. The resident’s weary eyes said it all. He was finishing a 24-hour shift of a 30-day Q3 rotation (where a 24 to 30-hour shift starts every 3rd day). As a medical student waiting for […]